PlainBlack writes: "Amazon Web Services are offline in Region 1 (US Virginia). It started as a failure of EBS (the disk array), but since nearly all other services make use of it, it's a cascading failure of everything."

PlainBlack writes: "Yet Another Perl Conference (YAPC) will be streamed live on the net for free on June 13 through the 15th. If you want to brush up your Perl skills but can't make it to a conference, check out the live feed."

crazyjj writes: As reported in Wired, a recent National Research Council report indicates a growing concern for NASA, the NOAA, and USGS. While there are currently 22 Earth-observing satellites in orbit, this number is expected to drop to as low as six by the year 2020. The U.S. relies on this network of satellites for weather forecasting, climate change data, and important geologic and oceanographic information.

As with most things space and NASA these days, the root cause is funding cuts. The program to maintain this network of satellites was funded at $2 billion as recently as 2002, but has since been scaled back to $1.3 billion at present, with only two replacement satellites having definite launch dates.

An anonymous reader writes: The era of the selfish search is passing, say Microsoft and CMU researchers who are working on moving ahead with distributed sensemaking to build on the work of searches gone by....

MrSeb writes: "The Light Fair convention kicks off in Las Vegas this week so there will be any number of related announcements coming soon. Lighting giant Philips is starting things off early with the announcement of their 100W-equivalent LED bulb, the AmbientLED 23W. The model produces 1700 lumens, putting it at a very respectable 73.9 lm/W. The unveiling comes shortly after Philips’ L Prize bulb was made available to consumers. That bulb currently sells for about $60 and is a more efficient light source, capable of 94 lm/W. The two use similar designs, for example both take advantage of remote phosphor, but the AmbientLED 23W (it will be called the EnduraLED in non-consumer applications) is brighter and lacking in some of the performance characteristics of the L Prize winner, including luminous efficiency and color accuracy. Philips’ 100W-equivalent bulb will be available some time in the fourth quarter. Pricing has yet to be announced, but it will likely be well over $30."

An anonymous reader writes: A protein injection protected neurons in the brains of mice with prion disease, according to new research that could offer hope to patients with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In what was described as a “major breakthrough in understanding what kills neurons,” the latest study, published in the journal Nature, has for the first time found a pathway leading to neuron death in mice with prion disease, the mouse equivalent of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), which is currently an incurable, neurodegenerative and fatal condition that causes the brain to slowly die.

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Telegraph reports that huge plant-eating dinosaurs callled sauropods may have produced enough greenhouse gas by breaking wind to alter the Earth's climate. Scientists believe that, just as in cows, methane-producing bacteria aided the digestion of sauropods by fermenting their plant food. ''A simple mathematical model suggests that the microbes living in sauropod dinosaurs may have produced enough methane to have an important effect on the Mesozoic climate,'' says study leader Dr Dave Wilkinson. ''Indeed, our calculations suggest that these dinosaurs could have produced more methane than all modern sources — both natural and man-made — put together.'' The key factor is the total mass of the animals which included some of the largest animals to walk the Earth, such as Diplodocus, which measured 150 feet and weighed up to 45 tons. Medium-sized sauropods weighed about 20 tons and lived in herds of up to a few tens of individuals per square kilometer so global methane emissions from the animals would have amounted to around 472 million tons per year, the scientists calculated. Sauropods alone may have been responsible for an atmospheric methane concentration of one to two parts per million (ppm), say the scientists and studies have suggested that the Earth was up to 10C (18F) warmer in the Mesozoic Era. ''The Mesozoic trend to sauropod gigantism led to the evolution of immense microbial vats unequalled in modern land animals. Methane was probably important in Mesozoic greenhouse warming. Our simple proof-of-concept model suggests greenhouse warming by sauropod megaherbivores could have been significant in sustaining warm climates.''"

An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. military is developing its next generation bomber with Chinese anti-access strategy -the ability to stop any enemy force from coming to fight with things like carrier killer missiles- in mind. The new bomber will replace older platforms like the 1950's B-52, the 1970's B-1, and 1990's B-2 stealth bomber.

The new bomber will sport some unique qualities. It will have an option to be unmanned, will act similar to a UAV, have better stealth capabilities, will be connected to US intelligence networks to create a 'smart' battlefield environment, and have near unlimited range thanks to in-air refueling.

kkleiner writes: "After receiving retinal implants in a trial, two people in the UK and one in China – all blind – regained part of their vision. All of the trial participants were made blind by retinitis pigmentosa in which the light-sensitive rods and cones of the retina deteriorate. British participants Robin Millar and Chris James, whose retinas had not responded to light in over a decade, were able to see immediately after the chip was turned on. Seeing the first flashes of light, James told the BBC, was a “magic moment.”"

First, I should state that it's really not about the language, it's about the coder. You can build great and crappy things with any language. And every language has it's warts.

That said, the best language I've used in the past 20 years of programming has got to be Modern Perl. Not the chicken scratch Perl you saw 5 or 10 years ago, but Modern Perl. Here are some of the strengths of modern Perl:

PlainBlack writes: I've all of the sudden found myself in a weird position. My company recently released close sourced a game with an open API. We open sourced the client for it. And now we're getting volunteers asking if they can help contribute to the server, which is still closed. We can't open source the server, but it's also hard turning down knowledgable help, especially when it comes for free. My business partners and I are confounded as to what to do. Is there some sort of half-measure that others have employed in such a situation, or are we unique?

hasanabbas1987 writes: So now is the time when we find out how fast are the Apple MacBook Airs really are and whether these can really serve as your primary machine. Some early Benchmark results are already out and this is what they show about the MacBook Air.